What’s It Like Living Overseas?
What can I say, I love living overseas. In my lifetime I have lived in Germany (graduated HS in Stuttgart), Korea, Qatar and now Turkey. Living overseas affords me the opportunity to emerge myself into another countries culture. This can be difficult for those that are not open-minded, but I fully accept the challenge.
Prior to me accepting an assignment overseas, I usually do a couple of things…for one I look up the country on Pinterest, especially if it’s not a common travel destination. Pinterest allows you to get a chance to see what other people are saying about the location, and also what it has to offer. The next thing I do is check flights. I want to research how far I am from other countries that I have wanted to travel to as well.
Turkey is the first country that I have lived where my living accommodations were not on a military installation. What’s great about this is sometimes when you’re limited to living on a military installation you forget that there is this big city right outside, worth exploring. My neighborhood is great. I’m surrounded by juice bars, coffee shops, Zara (my favorite store), Sephora and plenty of restaurants. My apartment itself has three bedrooms, one bath, hardwood floors, and a modern kitchen. I’m definitely having my Sex and The City moment living here.
But don’t you miss being home? That’s the question I usually get. Of course I miss my family and my Golden Doodle Louis, but no. I don’t miss it. I love going to the open market and buying fresh produce for the cheap. Honestly once I return home, I’m going to be the biggest produce snob! Seriously last week for example, I bought about 8 peaches, 2 kilos of cherries, bananas, 5 corn on the cob…all for roughly$10.00 My cherries alone would have been $10.
Although you can most definitely bring your car overseas, most will buy a little hooptie to get them from A to B. Because transportation is provide to an from work for me and taxis are really cheap, it’s one less thing that I choose not to have to worry about.
There has to be one thing you don’t enjoy. The only drawback is most Europeans are still heavy smokers. You cannot smoke inside the restaurants, but it makes sitting outside having a meal less enjoyable. Although my fellow American’s complain of being stared at, which do I get, especially when I run outside but hey, there aren’t many people here that look like me, let alone outside working out. It can be annoying, or make you feel like Beyonce. Unlike most European countries where English is taught, the majority of Turkish citizens do not speak fluent English, but I don’t speak fluent Turkish either. Good translate is your friend!
To think that this small town girl has lived all over the world when there are those that are afraid to leave their own backyard.
Where is the one country you could see yourself calling home?